Calexico @ Fix Factory, Thessaloniki, 13/11/2015

Saturday, 14 November 2015 10:30

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Three years after their first appearance in Thessaloniki Calexico returned to offer a great night full of beautiful music. This time they played in Fix Factory of Sound, one of the biggest indoor clubs of the town, which was packed from early on and most of us left satisfied a few hours later. They’re a band deeply and widely loved by Greek people and they honoured us by including two gigs on the tour promoting their recent album ‘Edge Of The Sun‘. It’s been an annoyingly warm November so far and Joey Burns did comment on it while speaking a bit on the album.

Moa Bones was there to open the shows, both in Thessaloniki and in Athens the following day. His second album was released earlier this year has been reviewed by Sunday Freakshow blog and he played several songs from it till roughly 22:00. Greek concert schedule might seem frustrating to some from around the world, but that’s how it goes down here: Main act on stage at 22:30, more or less. The beautiful atmosphere that Moa Bones had created with his country/americana style was almost gone by the end of the half hour intermission. Calexico though went straight to the point and got the night rolling soon enough. One and half hour followed by two encores should suffice the most demanding of us, but there were still a few songs many would like to hear, say ‘Ballad Of Cable Hogue‘.

‘Stray’ is one of the most popular songs of the band here, fact pushed by its use on the TV show of presenter-turned-politician Stavros Theodorakis and Burns introduced it with a tongue-in-cheek phrase “You might know it from somewhere else, but this is a Calexico song“. Other than that, the classic Love‘s ‘Alone Again Or‘ cover couldn’t be missing and we got a taste of Manu Chao‘s ‘Desaparecido‘ before the first encore and Clash‘s ‘Guns Of Brixton‘ towards the end in between ‘Crystal Frontier‘. It certainly wasn’t one of those great, memorable gigs, but Calexico‘s rich sound coming from seven people on stage and their great songs offer a night you wouldn’t want to miss.

Born, grown up and studying in Thessaloniki. At a point in his life he heard that "There's only one way of life, your own" and since then he's trying to find it. While he's changing, he's listening to music.